Photography by Sachiyo Aso (Murakami Archives)

Interview with Onomichi mayor

Yuko Hiratani

When Onomichi merged with Innoshima, Mukaishima, and Setoda, it
became the city in Japan with the largest number of employees working inthe shipbuilding and related industries. As a result, it adopted 'The
Maritime City of Onomichi' as its slogan, and held 'Sea Festa Onomichi -Sea Festival 2012 Onomichi/Fukuyama/Mihara --'. Onomichi mayor Yuko
Hiratani explains, "There are a wide variety of shipyards in Onomichi, but
we also have marine equipment manufacturers and shipping companies,
which is one noteworthy feature of Onomichi as a maritime city." Inconjunction with Imabari, with whom it has concluded a sister city
partnership, the city is attempting to turn the coast along Shimanami Kaido(coastal highway) into the largest focal point of Japan's maritime industry,indicating plans to boost the status of its maritime industry within the Seto
Inland Sea region.

* The largest number of shipbuilding
shipbuilding employees in JapanKaiji Press: What prompted you to adopt a slogan of 'The Maritime City of Onomichi'?
Yuko Hiratani: Onomichi has long been a port-of-call of Kitamaebune (cargoship) trades
along the Sea of Japan, and has developed with a focus on the sea. It has also continued
to develop its shipbuilding industry. When we had our municipal merger, we mergedwith Mitsugi and Mukaishima in 2005, and then with Innoshima and Setoda thefollowing year, creating the current Onomichi that you see today. Once the integrations
were finished and we looked at corporate and operational statistics for 2006, it wasapparent that we had the largest number of shipbuilding industry employees of any cityin Japan.
With 4,053 employees, Onomichi is the only city to have in excess of 4,000 shipbuilding
industry workers. Nagasaki is in second place with 3,985 employees, followed by Kobein third with 3,691 employees, Imabari in fourth with 3,481 employees, and Tamano in
fifth with 3,388 employees. We realized after compiling data that we had so many
people working in maritime and related industries that it was actually one of
Onomichi's core industries. While the large majority is centered on the shipbuilding
industry, development of our marine equipment and shipping industries is also creating
jobs, so we thought that this awareness of having a large amalgamation of shipping
industry-related companies should most definitely be part of our urban development
plans.
KP: When did you begin to feel that Onomichi was becoming a cicity
ty of maritimemaritime-relatedindustries?
Hiratani: I'm originally from Iwashijima, which is obviously surrounded by the sea. For
junior high, I went to Mukaishima Junior High School, right across from which was oneof Hitachi Zosen's plants. Even from the classroom, we could hear the clanging of theshipyard. We could also see launching ceremonies from the school, and hear therumbling of the newbuilding ships as they slid down the building berth. It was common
to hear my friends say, "My dad works at the shipyard," or hear that a neighbor worked
in some shipbuilding-related job. It was around then that I began to think of it as anextremely large industry in terms of employment numbers.

* Working with Imabari to create Japan's largest accumulation ofmaritimemaritime-related
related companies
KP: Why did you decide to call Onomichi a maritime city?
Hiratani: After the municipal merger, people would ask me, "What kind of city isOnomichi?" which led me to conclude that shipbuilding was the city's core industry
when considering Innoshima, Mukaishima, and Setoda. Then people would say, "Well,
why not call it a 'shipbuilding city'?" but I felt that focusing solely on shipbuilding was
too narrow a scope, and that 'maritime city' felt more accurate. By using the phrase'maritime city', this allows us to include not only those that work in our shipbuilding,marine equipment, and shipping industries, but every person that works in any of ourmaritime industries, such as the Japan Coast Guard and those that work inseamanship training and related fields. On top of that, we also have the Onomichi
Maritime Office of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport & Tourism's
Chugoku District Transport Bureau. One of the five largest branches of the Maritime
Transport Bureau was the Onomichi Maritime Transport Bureau (now the Onomichi
Maritime Office). One feature of Onomichi is this wider scope of meaning as a maritime
city, which allows us to include those kinds of jobs as well.
I believe that 'maritime city' fits Onomichi perfectly. Had we used the phrase'shipbuilding city', it probably would not have gained much recognition. While it is truethat a municipality deciding to call itself a maritime city places pressure on us, I believe
it was the most appropriate phrase for Onomichi.
Still, the phrase 'maritime city' is somewhat unfamiliar to those not involved in themaritime industry, so we must keep using the phrase 'The Maritime City of Onomichi'. I
believe that it was our persistence in calling ourselves a maritime city that allowed usto hold Sea Festa Onomichi 2012.
KP: Imabari has also begun to call itself a maritime city.
Hiratani: We have concluded a sister city partnership with Imabari, which is located on
the other side of the Seto Inland Sea and is connected via the Shimanami Kaido.
Imabari is also a maritime city, and by having the two cities come together to develop
the idea of a maritime city, we hope to make the Shimanami Kaido the largest focal
point of Japan's maritime industry. By this, I don't mean just working to develop
Onomichi as a maritime city, but I would also like to work together with our sister city
to create Japan's largest collection of maritime industry-related companies. I use thephrase 'maritime city' to refer to this as well.
While we have become sister cities with Imabari, our connection didn't start out as one
related to maritime cities. We formed a sister city partnership because Imabari was thecity on the shore opposite us in Shikoku. Now, however, Imabari hosts the Imabari
Maritime

Exhibition,

alsoknown

asBari-Ship,

whoseparticipants

includemaritime-related companies from Onomichi, allowing the two cities to further interact
with each other.

* One feature is Onomichi's wide variety of shipyards
KP: What other noteworthy features does the Maritime City of Onomichi boast?
Hiratani: Hiroshima governor Hidehiko Yuzaki was elected based on his 'Setouchi
Uminomichi Plan' (Seto Inland Searoad Concept) campaign promise. The idea of thatconcept is to entice tourism by tapping into the appeal of the Seto Inland Sea. Thissearoad concept links Onomichi with Hiroshima from a policy point of view, both in thesense of advancing our maritime industry and tourism resources related to the sea.
Prefectural policies can be rolled out in Onomichi in a variety of forms. The governor
may never come up with his Setouchi Uminomichi Plan if we didn't use the expression'maritime city' or there wasn't this shared sense of Onomichi being a city connected withthe sea.
KP: What are some defining features of Onomichi compared to otherother maritimemaritime-relatedcities?
Hiratani: With regard to the shipbuilding industry, while some may use the blanket
term of 'shipbuilding', the truth is that we have a variety of different categories. We
have many shipyards, such as Onomichi Dockyard and Naikai Zosen, from those that
construct large ships to those that build small and midsize ships equipped with specialtechnologies.
Construction techniques for aluminum ships require special technology due to thedifficulty in welding. Shipyards such as Tsuneishi Facilities & Craft and Setouchi Craftspecialize in aluminum ships. The Awaline Kirara, a catamaran passenger ship
constructed by Tsuneishi Craft for Awashima Line, was awarded 'Ship of the Year 2011'
in the small passenger ship category. Ishida Shipbuilding also constructs small ships,and uses special techniques to construct specialized ships. As for ship repairs, we have
Universal Shipbuilding's Innoshima yard, Sanwa Dock, and Mukaishima Dock. There isalso Okada Zosensho that constructs Japanese-style ships.
While the ships constructed here are not that large, Onomichi is a city with a widevariety of characteristic shipyards that possess special technologies. While this may besomething you would have to come to Onomichi to understand, the islands here are notactually that far apart from each other, meaning you can see ship blocks coming andgoing right in front of your eyes. Onomichi is the only place, I believe, where you canexperience this.
We also have the Onomichi Marine Institute, and our maritime city concept includes
crewmember training as well as the promotion of marine leisure.
You could also say that our seven fishery cooperatives are another feature of Onomichi,
as are our plentiful fishery resources. While this may be surprising, Onomichi has oneof the highest catch rates in Hiroshima. For example, we produce the highest output ofred sea bream (high value fish) in the prefecture. We are also number one or two interms of clams and octopus, and number two for cutlass fish.

* Hoping more
more people to get to know the Seto Inland Sea
KP: What kinds of things are you focusing on to support Onomichi as a maritime city?

Hiratani: I believe that the municipal
government's main job should be to provide
support on the software side of things. Assuch, we provide support to Innoshima
Technical Center and engage in advertising
for the Sea Festa. We also want children tobe interested in the sea. Long ago,Japanese pirates would sail the seas withunrestricted freedom all the way to themainland, and I believe it will be necessary
to embrace a similar exploratory spirit
going forward.
KP: What things do you hope to focus on
from here on?
on?
Hiratani: I'd like to see more involvementwith ships. We are privileged to live in thisarea called the Seto Inland Sea, and I want
to be able to share it with as many people
as I can. The challenge we as government
officials face will be how to use ourresources to develop our industries, andwhether or not we can use that to help ourProfile
Yuko Hiratani
Born in 1953 in Iwashijima, Mukaishima-cho,Onomichi-city.
Graduatedfrom
theDepartmentofEducation,
Yamaguchi
University in 1977. Became an instructor at
Onomichi Yoshiwa Junior High School in 1984.
Became teachers' consultant for the Onomichi
education board in 1991. Became head ofeducation section for Onomichi education
board in 1998. Became head of Hiroshima
Geihoku education office in 2002. Became headof Hiroshima Kure-Kamo education office in
2003, and later the same year became head ofOnomichi education board. Took current
position in 2007.

tourism industry.
At the Port of Hiroshima, there is a cruiseship called Galaxy operated by Setonaikai
Kisen that doubles as a restaurant. I'd like to see a similar ship come here to Onomichi.
The year 2014 will mark 80 years since the Seto Inland Sea was designated as anational park. Being able to enjoy the Galaxy, whose home port is Hiroshima, here atthat time would be a great symbol for the city. Being able to enjoy a meal during a day
cruise would be a wonderful thing. It would be great if something like that could further
serve to connect the maritime cities of Onomichi and Imabari.
My plan is to come up with ideas with the help of all those within the maritime industry
so that we can engage in efforts that are profitable.